For some unholy reason I have wanted a Krag for quite some time, and finally scored one yesterday (My first message to a good friend was OMG KRAG!) which also coincides with the death of my camera.

What I have is a rifle that might have been restorable, except Bubba got his sticky fingers on it twice.  Perhaps three times.

It lives in a nice walnut sporter stock.  A very, very nice and very old walnut stock. It reminds me of the wood you see on old Remington Mosins that never left the US and lived in a closet all their lives. It has the look and feel of 80 year old walnut, and I love it.  So this may be Bubba number one; putting it in the sporter stock, and replacing the front sight with a Marbles #11 blade, and presumably a Redfield peep of sort; the magazine cuttoff is missing, and the rear sight has been removed.

Then some bubba with a drill put in two holes for a scope mount. One of which obliterates the first one or two digits of the serial number  :'( All I have remaining for a serial is ?1969. I'm presuming this was done well before GCA of 1968 which would have made defacing the serial like that rather illegal. 

The more recent and some what sloppy bubba is four more holes in the receiver for a Weaver #2 side scope mount, which is what I'll be using until I can either come up with an affordable original or replica rear sight or an affordable peep sight. 

The barrel appears to be a proper 22" carbine barrel, and to have the original front sight dovetail.  The bore is gorgeous, and I can't wait to put a scope on this gun and shoot it.

My guess from research and looking over this gun is it's a sporter from somewhere between the time these things were sold cheap, and before WWII. Perhaps even no later than the mid 20's or early 30's.  The age, patina, and quality of the stock is the main thing I'm operating on. 

This is a picture of the gun, although the horrible cammo tape is removed from it. Until I get my camera going or find another one, this is the best I can do sadly.  Seller's pic, not my collection.    (You need to Login

SteveC:  Welcome to the KCA forum.  Sporterized Krags, with fine bores, can make for very nice hunting rifles and Range guns.  The harm is already done so there is no guilt in using them.  Attached is a photo of an 1898 Cavalry Carbine that was drilled for a side-mount and dove-tailed for a sporting rear sight.  I put a side-mount and an old Weaver scope back on her to hide the ugly mount holes.  She's a good Shooter!

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That's the same mount I have, nice scope there.

I figure to make this a hunting rifle, although I'm half tempted to put a suppressor on it too, since they are legal to hunt with in my state. Vintage looking suppressor, a nice set of period sporting irons.... could be cool. 

SteveC:  What is a "Vintage looking Suppressor"?  I don't think anything would look right added to a Krag's muzzle.

Look at some of the early maxim suppressors. Something made to look like that is what I had in mind.

I figure since the receiver is screwed up with six screw holes,I might as well do something whimsical with the gun, presuming the original and largely unaltered barrel isn't worth saving in current form.

The unaltered carbine barrel is the most valuable part of your sporterized Krag.  Why become Bubba?  Do no harm, use it as is.  IMHO

I've been looking at old Maxim ads, and always thought having an early 20th century sporting rifle with a suppressor would be cool. A lot of machinists in the Puget Sound region, and a small group of homemade suppressor enthusiasts. Wouldn't be too hard to get one made up that resembled an early Maxim.  I figured I've got a nice sporter stock, an ugly scope mount, missing rear sights, might as well try and make a century old fancy sporter out of it. 

Eh, in the meanwhile, I'll get a scope on there and play with it.  Maybe I'll find a cut down rifle then to muck about with my desire for a vintage suppressed gun.